Union and district representatives continued into the late evening Sunday with a marathon weekend bargaining session to seal an end to the first Los Angeles Unified School District teacher walkout in 30 years.

Today’s session started at about 11 a.m. at L.A. City Hall, marking the fourth straight day of talks following the United Teachers Los Angeles union’s walkout last Monday.

Just after 10 p.m., Mayor Eric Garcetti tweeted: “Today was a productive day of negotiations with UTLA and LAUSD. All parties reaffirm their commitment to continuing negotiations into the night and into tomorrow to resolve the remaining issues as soon as possible.”

Today was a productive day of negotiations with UTLA and LAUSD. All parties reaffirm their commitment to continuing negotiations into the night and into tomorrow to resolve the remaining issues as soon as possible. Thank you to everyone for your continued hard work and support.

Their goal is to end a strike that has so far cost the district millions of dollars in lost attendance-based revenue and kept teachers out of classrooms for five days while staffers were left behind try to maintain some sense of normalcy.

Teachers, through their union, United Teachers Los Angeles, are demanding a 6.5 percent pay bump retroactive for one year, more resources such nurses, librarians and counselors at local campuses, smaller class sizes and more regulation of charter schools, which have grown rapidly since the last such walkout.

On Sunday morning, it was quiet outside City Hall shortly before 11 a.m., but it belied the bargaining going on inside over the weekend.

A lone police officer sat at the front desk in the lobby. He had a list of names of the district’s and union’s negotiating teams and only allowed those people to enter City Hall.

Given the lockdown on the meetings, it was difficult to know what kind of progress was being made, though.

School Board member Nick Melvoin tweeted out a statement on behalf of the LAUSD school board, thanking staffers who worked inside schools during the walkout and highlighting the financial hit the district was taking from lost revenue during the strike.

“This is why we needed to keep schools open and why we need a quick resolution this weekend,” he said in his introduction to the tweet. “We’re at the table all weekend and hope both teams work around the clock to reach an agreement.”

Thanks to everyone for their support of kids, in their own ways, this week. This is why we needed to keep schools open and why we need a quick resolution this weekend. We’re at the table all weekend and hope both teams work around the clock to reach an agreement. pic.twitter.com/dhYtz6tAqO

With the strike lingering, attendance has continued to plummet. According to the district, only about 85,274 students went to class Friday at strike-affected campuses, up slightly from 84,160 on Thursday.

District officials said the absentee rate over the first five days of the strike has translated to a gross revenue loss of about $125 million in state funding, which is based on daily attendance.

The loss is partially offset — by roughly $10 million a day — due to salaries that aren’t being paid to the striking teachers. Beutner estimated earlier this week that the district suffered a net loss of roughly $15 million on Monday alone.

On Saturday, Garcetti, who has been helping to mediate talks, sounded a note of hope that the strike could end soon, when he told a Women’s March crowd that teachers deserve justice and that this weekend they’ll get it.

LA City Hall late Saturday as LAUSD and UTLA negotiators worked through the night to end the teacher strike. (Photo by Bradley Bermont)

Inside an otherwise empty City Hall, negotiators, who spent more than 11 hours at the table Saturday, didn’t seem quite as optimistic, but as they sometimes momentarily left the bargaining room they noted a determination to find enough common ground to end the strike.

After Saturday’s marathon session, Garcetti once again sounded a note of progress.

“Bargaining teams from UTLA and LAUSD had a third productive day of contract negotiations,” he tweeted, just after midnight.

Bargaining teams from UTLA and LAUSD had a third productive day of contract negotiations. The discussions concluded at 10:28 PM. Negotiations will resume Sunday at 11:00 AM facilitated by the Mayor's Office.

The walkout last week rippled throughout L.A., as nearly 30,000 teachers and their supporters flooded rain-soaked streets near the district’s 1,000 K-12 schools, picketing, chanting, rallying. They converged on L.A. City Hall twice in massive rallies that seem to surpass the numbers of the Women’s March on Saturday.

Some San Fernando Valley parents were on pins and needles to see if marathon negotiations would yield a deal.

“I am grateful that the negotiations are underway,” said Evelyn Aleman, parent of a sophomore at Grover Cleveland High School in Reseda. “I’m hopeful that they will, obviously, reach an agreement as soon as possible. I think that would be best for everyone.”

Aleman hoped for a message of unity and collaboration from leadership on both sides, and at the city, county and state level.

“I’m concerned for when the agreement is settled and the strike ends,how will we feel this division at various levels, particularly at the school site level, ” she said.

She supports many of the teachers’ demands, but she didn’t think a strike was the way to bring about change.

“I’m curious to see what LAUSD will come back with, what it will be able to make true on,” Aleman said.

Aleman has sent her daughter to school during the strike so the district will generate revenue. Her daughter has spent time reviewing math and Spanish during free time on the computer and has participated in group activities like discussions about students’ goals and icebreakers. Aleman always makes sure her daughter brings a book as well.

Because of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday, school is scheduled to be dark that day, so negotiators were hoping to strike an agreement by Tuesday.

While there’s no picketing scheduled on Monday, some teachers might participate in MLK parades, officials said.

And, if there’s no deal to end the strike by then, union officials said teachers will resume picketing and demonstrations on Tuesday.

Correspondent Sarah Favot and City News News Service contributed to this story.

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